Family Practitioner Preparedness for Pediatric Emergencies

We read with interest the article by Drs Flores and Weinstock, titled "The Preparedness of Pediatricians for Emergencies in the Office."1This article confirms the results of previous studies2-4on the preparedness of North American office practitioners (pediatricians and/or family practitioners) for pediatric emergencies. In France, emergency services with mobile intensive care unit staffed by a trained physician are extensively developed, and we hypothesized that the situation could be different. Thus, we conducted a survey5in the northern area of France ("département du Nord"), which includes a large urban area and rural areas (2.5 million inhabitants). A 2-page questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 104 family practitioners. Answers were collected over the telephone 10 days later by the same investigator (C.F.). The response rate was 75%. Availability and use of drugs and equipment in practitioner offices are given in theTable. We observed striking differences